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Thursday, June 13, 2013

Whhhhhaaaaaaat're yoooouuuuuu doing here?

Well, I am a research assistant for the Winter Quarters
Project. winterquarters.byu.edu is the place to go [see link on the side]. Here
is a short description taken from the website:

The Winter Quarters Project
is based at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. This is an ongoing effort
to gather information about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints who lived in the Winter Quarters area between the years of 1846 and
1853. We are also researching the settlements created by the pioneers and the
causes of death among the Saints at that time.

This part is kinda precious:

I was hired at the beginning of May and was asked to go to
Nebraska one week later. So before I was asked to go, I was assigned to find
out more about Walnut Creek, a newly discovered settlement during the pioneer
time. Right when I thought I was getting some answers, Dr. A.Y. invited me to
go to Nebraska and gave me a new project: Springville. I was given a list of
names of people who were known to live there, and I needed to find out as much
information as I could. So I’ve been using www.ancestry.com and www.familysearch.org to
find their records. I also love www.findagrave.com! It’s pretty explanatory—it
helps you find tombstones and cemeteries of your ancestors. All the links
should be on the side :) I have a huge spreadsheet with tons of information on
these Springville, IA residents. Their birthdates, marriage dates, death dates,
parents’ names, children’s names, company that they traveled with to the
valley, and a list of sources. So that is my job, and I love it!

A picture of pioneers when they arrived in Salt Lake City

Now, what are we doing out in Nebraska and Iowa? No, we
don’t have shovels—we are not digging up graves. Apparently that’s illegal. We
are meeting with people who may know more information about where people may
be buried, but it’s not marked. They are
most likely forgotten. So what’s the point of finding the graves, but not
digging them up to get the DNA?

“We gather the history of the Latter-day Saints
at the Missouri River. We work to understand the people, places, and events
that happened between 1846 and 1853. We gather information about the
descendents of pioneers to help them connect their family lines. When the
people in the area are aware that there is a cemetery, something changes in the
area. The Spirit of Elijah is touching the residents of the area, and pushing
them to find out who their
ancestors are and where they
are.” – Sis. Lately.

“To gather information about settlements that have been populated
by early saints that are no longer there, and find cemeteries that go with
those settlements.” – Dr. A.Y.

This was very unkept and very few people know that it exists. It was out in the middle of nowhere!

These people know that they could use this land to farm it, but they don’t. It’s a sacred land. So this is a sacred mission and I LOVE IT!! I’m learning way too much history for my brain to hold. My next posts will be catching up on all these other days we’ve spent out here. I hope I explained everything well enough :)